Author : Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

This book had been on my list for well over a year and it was definitely worth finally getting to. I listened to this one on audio which I definitely recommend (even over the book). The reason I suggest this is because of the great production in the audio version. All the characters are different voices and they definitely add to each personality of the characters in the story. They have added sound effects, background sounds and music where appropriate. It’s the best audio book I’ve ever heard for the quality and production aspects of it.

Its written as a fictional story about Alex Rogo, a manufacturing plant manager, struggling with the success of his plant as well as his marriage. His plant has undergone a serious downturn despite various improvements with new technology and higher efficiencies. He’s been given an ultimatum to turn the plant around or it will be shut down and the story is about his struggle and realizations of trying to recover the plant. His work centric lifestyle drives his wife to question their marriage and she moves out on him during this time so Alex is in a real bind and has to find ways to save both his plant and marriage!

Alex gets in touch with a past professor, named Jonah, who helps to guide Alex toward a series of steps and continual process of drastic and continual improvement. They explore and challenge the conventional methods in place despite the barriers from corporate head quarters and Alex’s skeptical boss. He learns to bridge the gap in tackling productivity by analyzing bottlenecks or constraints in the overall system, and not just individual areas within it that had otherwise always been the points of measure. Shockingly, he discovers what seems like common sense is not so common after all, and that putting into practice the non-conventional shifts can make a major impact on what he has learned the goal to be; to make money. Its not to cut costs, reduce wages, increase efficiency, or any of the other traditional measures that were in place. Its about balancing 3 critical areas of the plant’s operations in order to make more money, regardless of those other measures. These three components need to happen simultaneously in order to have any significance and these are:

• Reduce Inventory
• Reduce Operating Expense
• Increase throughput

He further implements changes at his plant based on the guidance of his new mentor, Jonah. He learns that in the plant there is a chain of dependent processes and with those, statistical fluctuations that can occur at any step and cause lags down the chain. This slows productions and ultimately makes the performance of the system much worse than the constraint on its own, since other barriers and delays keep piling up. Alex begins to restructure the thinking of his people and changes the process to maximize the use of the bottlenecks in his plant, while looking specifically at the 3 items listed above. This process is known as the Theory of Constraints . This theory comes into practice in the following 5 steps:

1. Identify the constraint
2. Exploit the constraint (or bottleneck) by keeping it running and maximize its output as much as possible
3. Subordinate. Get everything to run at a pace that keeps up to the bottleneck, to avoid inventory jams.
4. Elevate. Increase the throughput of the constraints no matter the costs since they limit the entire system throughput.
5. Repeat with new constraints. As constraints are improve, new constraints will emerge, repeat with these next.

So, the values in this book are many. It is written brilliantly to portray an understandable method of analyzing a system to improve its performance and it demonstrates a method that can easily be applied and practiced in any organization or life. The details within the book are presented in such a simple and clear way, the context of them are transparent to other lines of business and not limited to the operations of a manufacturing plant, which the story is based on. The 1st person narrative style really emphasizing the thought processes of examining such a problem and definitely gives the reader a chance to think the same way even while reading the story!

I highly recommend this book. It was a much more useful with applicable steps than I thought from Peter Senges’ The Fifth Discipline , but that book is also an good read very much related. I had read it first, but I would recommend you read The Goal first, then Fifth Discipline.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 2 Comments »

I love being known for someone who is always happy and I constantly look for ways to further enhance the joy and happiness I experience in my life. I have 2 specific things that really help with this, one is a great way to start a day and the other, a great way to end it.

Start Your Day Out Right

I read an article by Marshal Goldsmith suggesting an easy way to improve each day is to say hello and smile to the first five people you see no matter when or who they are. You can be in your car, walking to work, at work, at home looking out your window or your family, it doesn’t matter. If you smile and say hello to those first people you see every single day, you definitely start the day off better feeling happier and more positive. Its physically impossible to smile without affecting your mindset since the brain releases chemicals and fires neurons automatically when you smile, whether you want to or not. The brain and these chemicals are what directly affect your physiology, so that simple smile really does make you feel better and doing this everyday can easily turn it into a habit and I can tell you you’ll love doing it once you start practicing it. I’ve made a habit of it now over the past 6 months or so and I can definitely tell you its made a big difference in how I feel each day. And better than that, a couple other people have told me how they’ve noticed my smiles everyday and it also makes them feel better! WOW! So simple, yet so effective.

Finish Your Day Out Right

I’ve heard before by motivational speakers like Brian Tracy and other others tips to finish your day off positively and I was reminded of this tip by Ced on the manager-tools.com forums. Its to just take 1-2 minutes right before bed to make a point form list of 5 positive or good things you say, did, heard or experienced that day. Simple things that made you feel better or that you noticed others doing. Just jot them down and go to bed. Its a great technique to help you focus on the pleasant things you experience and helps you to realize everything to be appreciative for in life. Developing this habit by jotting them on paper is a great way to practice and you’ll soon be able to just think of many many items each day before bed. Try it out, it can definitely make a positive influence on your mood the next day. Let alone your dreams… I’ll leave that topic for other post though…

Posted by Mike King under Life | 4 Comments »

Something I believe is truly valuable in life is to reach out to others, new ideas and new experiences. Many people tend to settle into their routines where they can keep change to a minimum and feel comfortable in their lives. One major downside to this is that many people simply fall into a life of complacency never looking to expand. They just continue to live the same thing over and over again. This isn’t always bad but considering most people do have desires and plans to change some things and improve areas of their lives, its important to look for ways to practice that. I also believe that new experiences and people is joyous so definitely worthwhile pursuing. A few of the areas I recommend that you make a monthly effort (at least) at to ensure you don’t find yourself getting stuck in a continual drone cycle are the following:

• Get out of the office at lunch and meet with someone you rarely see. Rarely is someone you haven’t seen in over a YEAR! Call them up, invite them for lunch or coffee sometime and get away from your usual daily crowd.
• Step out of your circle of friends if your in a group and make a real effort to talk with someone else or someone new. Its great to have a close knit group of friends, but that shouldn’t limit you to ONLY those friends. Take some steps out of your normal group and introduce your self to someone new, or have a talk with someone you really don’t know that well or have just met recently.
• At work people often focus ONLY on what they are directly involved with. Its amazing to see how many people need help, struggle in their jobs and hundreds of nearby employees don’t do anything to assist them, even direct peers. Get away from your own focus, your own ego or competitive mindset and for just a few minutes think about the colleagues around you. An offer of help to teach them, simply to listen or maybe even to help them get something done goes a LONG way to develop a lasting relationship.
• Doing something for a complete stranger. Even having a brief conversation and introducing yourself in a public place. Try it sometime if you take public transit. Ask questions about that person, listen more than you talk and you can leave a lasting impression. How about complimenting a stranger. If you’ve ever done that you know the feeling when you see the HUGE smile it can put on another’s face.
• One step further (which you might include in a step above) is doing something for the poor or needy. I assume most people reading this blog have it fairly well off and live a very comfortable live. Get out of that comfort zone, don’t just let life slip by without making an impact on others. How about volunteering or serving the poor or inviting someone over or out for dinner.
• Break out of your normal reading and writing habits. Read a type of book or topic that you don’t normally read. Often our reservations are routed more in fear of change than anything else so you can discover new interests and insights by expanding your exposure to new ideas. If your a writer or blogger (common on here) then write to a new audience. How about writing about an uncommon or unfamiliar topic. Do some research and write about your findings in a new area.
• Tackle your fears and do something to face them instead of avoiding them. Maybe that is public speaking, some adrenaline sport, extreme activity, heights, whatever, just take it head on and get out of your comfort zone in doing it.
• Change your food and try some new things in your meals.

All of these things help you adapt better to change and makes stepping out of your comfort zone when you NEED to much, much easier. Its a lot easier to adapt to change and try something new if you’re well practiced at it. Change is good and it provides a path for learning, accomplishment and satisfaction. Eagerness to change is a mindset of many leaders and is a valuable trait when exploring your self and how you impact others.

So, I hope this gives a few ideas to reach out of your comfort zone and learn to accept the challenge quickly, look for the opportunities in it and to develop a mindset and positive attitude toward change. This personal strength builds great character and an ability to continue to analyze things and improve one-self. A great trait to have, and definitely one that is important for any reader of a blog like this. It will differentiate you and help break you free from areas of complacency in your life. You really DON’T have to be like everyone else. Its just seems so many people think they do nowadays.

Posted by Mike King under Life | 2 Comments »

I recently published a guest article on DamnGoodManager.com about doing performance reviews as a manager for your direct reports. I suspect I have a lot more readers here who are not managers but do need to prepare for their own performance reviews often. This post is about some tips on how to do that and also useful since its from a manager’s perspective (yours truly). I encourage you to read through both posts since you will see some points from the manager’s perspective that are looked for and can also then better prepare for your next performance review.

So, this article is about the things I highly recommend you do in your job to ensure you get great performance reviews, year after year! Unfortunately there is no quick answer or magic potion to brew up that will guarantee you a great review as every workplace is difference and some things simply depend on your manager. Even still, there are some specific things that if consistently practiced, will make a big difference to improve your reviews every year. Here they are:

Focus on your Main Objectives

Confirm these with your boss. Ask to meet and discuss them, so you can understand your job description and ask all the questions required so you will clearly understand what your priorities should be according to YOUR boss. If they are going to be evaluating you, you better know what they are expecting from you! If you have regular meetings or one-on-ones with your boss, that is the best time to ask and help understand these. If you don’t have one-on-ones or regular meetings with your boss, ask for some time to review this and ALSO ask to start meeting on a regular basis with your boss so you have a chance to discuss your performance and priorities and to get more regular feedback from them. Take the responsibility to make this happen if it is not already. You simply can’t afford NOT to and if you are not meeting with your boss, you cannot possible know exactly what they are expecting from you.

Make Commitments and Tell Your Boss

The only way to impress your boss and get a great review is to not only do what is expected, but to do AT LEAST what is expected. If you can make a commitment to go above and beyond that and then deliver on that, you will be highly regarded. Decide on some area that you are willing to work to excel at and tell your boss exactly what you intend to do. Delivering on something that YOU set out to do will impress. This is far more valuable than over-delivering on something asked of you. That initiative you show and desire to excel will be extremely helpful towards earning a great review.

Know Your Boss’ Job

If you know your boss’ job and can see areas that you are able to help with, you should do so. Any responsibilities you can take on that specifically free up time for your boss, is going to be the most valuable time you can spend at work, especially in their eyes. Offer to help every chance you get and ALWAYS be willing to take on new work asked of you. This may mean juggling other priorities, delegating your own tasks or simply eliminating low priority work. The things that fall through the cracks are often completely overlooked anyway.

Be Reliable and Consistent

Work consistent hours at your workplace as much as possible. Even if you have flex time, changing your hours often and having gaps in your availability even if its the same amount of hours, never looks as good to a boss so consistency is very useful. I recommend starting earlier than most as early rising statistically get more done and are more likely to complete their goals and achievements. Assume your boss knows this statistic as well, so starting early is a good thing. A side note when it comes to consistency; don’t EVER complain about or use traffic as an excuse for being late and try not to drastically changing your work schedule from day to day or week to week. Even if you change how you get to work from day to day, do what you can do on your own time, to adjust things so you arrive at the same time consistently. Don’t give the impression that you sacrifice your work time when you arrive later than usual because of personal travel arrangements.

Being consistent and reliably on time will build confidence in you as a loyal, dependable worker. This is important. Being consistent also means leaving at a consistent time. A lot of people feel that working late hours looks good but it doesn’t! Delivering results looks good, not how many hours it takes to do that. If you can leave consistently and still deliver, you show character and balance with your home life. Its great to be willing to work late when asked or when needed to get a deliverable completed, but a consistent worker who gets there job done well and on time is always better than someone who is having to put in extra time to deliver the same thing. Often people who work very extended hours are seen as people who waste much time during the day and so have to work late to catch up each day. This is not a good impression to give. A consistent schedule and work ethic shows dedication and trust in your ability.

When At Work, Work!

Keep all your personal activities away from your work. Don’t surf personal sites, personal email, social networking sites or any other “home” activity at the office / workplace. Oh, and turn your personal cell phone off or at least to silent mode. Personally, I recommend this even for breaks and at lunch as much as possible. Do some reading, online research (work related) or socializing and relationship building during down time at work, not personal stuff. This looks FAR more productive to your boss and peers and builds the confidence in your work ethic and productivity. Oh, and if you don’t think your boss notices the time you spend on facebook or checking the latest sports stats, you’re wrong! They do notice and it affects their impression of you.

You do Have to Talk to Your Boss

Talk to your boss regularly. Daily if at all possible. Keep him / her informed of any concerns (and indicate your reasons why), significant progress, and even setbacks or delays. If you are sharing news about a problem or setback, always provide some kind of plan to help resolve the problem and get things back on track.

You boss is looking for results, so keep this in mind when you share anything with them. Always offer some solution or suggestion for any problem and NEVER just dump the problem on them. Ask them to help YOU resolve it and make sure you offer to resolve it yourself with their suggestions or advice on how to proceed. This VERY often opens new opportunities that seem tough like new responsibilities but it is exactly these things that will impress your boss. Being willing to deliver bad news to a customer, dealing with a personal conflict with another person, or even approaching a peer about poor performance, will definitely impress your boss. NEVER expect them to deal with a problem you bring to their attention unless they say it is theirs to handle and don’t want you involved. Still offer, even if they first offer to take it on themselves.

These types of examples are great things to learn if you are not yet doing them and all helpful for you to deal with and not dump on your boss. The more chances you give your boss to see that you can handle things that they have to normally do themselves, the more impressed they will be.

Review Your Own Performance

Review your own performance regularly, work on your goals weekly and inform your boss in writing with a monthly status report. Don’t ask if you can send it to them or it they want it, just do it no matter what. They will read it and they will find it informative and helpful even if its just a summary of what they already know. That is unlikely, its much more likely a monthly status report is the best window into your job that your boss has and they will really appreciate it and the initiative you take by sending it to them every single month. Start them off by explaining to your boss that you do them as part of your weekly and monthly planning to ensure you are on track with your priorities and goals and that you also want to make sure that they (your boss) are well informed on your progress, what you are working on and what to expect of you.

You really should be evaluating your own performance in your career anyway since you are the only one responsible for it, not your boss or anyone else. I recently wrote another article specifically about taking control and manage your own career . So, schedule yourself time each week to work on your yearly goals and the activities from any previous performance reviews you want to reinforce and improve on. Put those details and others in a monthly status report. Other elements to include are:

• Project updates you are involved on or leading
• Completed deliverables this month
• Summary of new things that you have learned or studied that month (doesn’t have to be strictly work related)
• Progress and actions taken toward any goals set
• Review of any existing responsibilities with your job
• Any major hurdles in progress or that your surpassed
• Next Month Forecast: Your main one or two activities planned for the next month, what would you like to accomplish

All of this should fit on a single page of paper or so. It should be kept brief and to the point. Send it on the same day every month (by email is fine), keep the subject line consistent each month and include the date. You need to do this because your boss WILL come back to these when they prepare your performance review and it will make their job much easier if its all easy to find. That is yet another great reason to do this monthly. Other things it provides you is a plan for the month of what to focus on and to focus on results as well as a clear indication of what you are working on so that your boss has a chance to correct or change any priorities LONG before your next review. This ensures you work on the right stuff and your boss knows it every single month.

For performance appraisal solutions, please visit www.halogensoftware.com

Posted by Mike King under Business | 3 Comments »

Life is a complex mess of circumstances, interactions and experiences each unique to every single person on this planet. There are countless things that seem to make a difference in people’s lives and how life is perceived. However, there seems to be just a handful of things that make a big difference on a daily basis with our relationships, career and joy in life. That item is part of one’s attitude and specifically, its about complaining in life. Most everyone does more than their share of complaining and it stems from the societal pressure of constantly wanting more, moving up the career chain, wanting to continually improve everything and simply because people are not generally content with what they have. If you take note and make a conscious effort to eliminate complaining in your own life, you will be much happier.

Why So Many Complaints?

Are you focused on constantly wishing things were different, and complaining about them instead of being focused on seeing and recognizing the things that are positive and going well for you? What about with others, do you complain to them more than thank, appreciate or praise them? Perfectionists and critical thinking people often deliver a lot of complaints and don’t see the good things happening around them every day.

People constantly complain about their jobs, there money or lack thereof, traffic and the weather. The news, its just a long series of more things to complain about and rarely anything to be excited about or thankful for. Life is unfortunately, quite a bombardment of media and people who are complaining about nearly everything!

You can change that for yourself by replacing any complaining with more positive thoughts and comments. Look for the good around you, talk about the positive things about your job, start conversations when the weather and traffic are good, see the things you value on a day to day basis and share that with others, instead of the usual set of complaints.

Change Your Focus

Its easy to change your attitude and start thinking and focusing on the positive things in your life if you look for this every day. Its takes some effort, but just a few changes everyday can make a big impact in your life and make you feel happier. Thinking positive and avoiding the complaints are your choice to make. That choice allows you to be in control of how you feel simply by choosing what you will focus on. You can make yourself happier if you choose to and by practicing consciously over and over to see the good things and to value them instead of complaining, you will train your mind to do the same subconsciously. This will eventually change your natural attitude and you won’t even have to work on this anymore, it will just happen. And you will be happier.

Posted by Mike King under Relationships | 2 Comments »

I’ve learned that one of the most effective tools in life is reading. Its not that long ago that I learned this either, which I wrote about here, but I’m amazed at the difference it has made in my happiness, career, spirituality and in my ability to help others. A few scary stats…

• The average reader spends about 1/6th of the time they spend reading actually rereading words.
• Good readers in 5th grade may read 10 times as many words as poor readers over a school year.
• More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage.
• In a survey of 2,000 adults, a third had not bought a new book in the previous 12 months. 34% said they did not read books.
• 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

Reference: http://www.readfaster.com/education_stats.asp
Reference: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/stats/readingstats.html

There are many other scary statistics about adult reading habits. What’s scariest to me however, is that children are never really taught to read in schools. They are taught to sound out the words, learn a vocabulary and to be able to read aloud text in class. After this, they are left to themselves to read and learn from it. The problem with this, is that it leaves a LOT of children reading in a audible way (called sub-vocalizing) which keeps there reading speed slow and well below the rate that the brain needs to stay focused. This leads to loss of attention and having to re-reading. Schools don’t teach anything about this, let alone scanning skills, training the eye muscles or any speed techniques. These could be taught in literally a few days and can make an amazing difference in one’s reading skill. Its no wonder if these are new to you, but I do encourage you to research reading skills a bit and to teach your children to read. Test their speeds, practice reading and measure for improvement. Its one of the best things you can learn or teach someone. I’ve pointed a few friends at these techniques and they have also helped them, so I can only hope this also helps you to improve your reading skills and gain access to a whole new world of knowledge with books. Some of these links should help to explore this subject further, please feel free to post your own online resources for reading. There are many other applications and reading courses available, this is a just a starting point!

More info and articles:

http://www.readfaster.com/speedreading/articles.asp

http://www.bewell-dowell.org/sos/tips_speed.html

Software Applications:

http://www.eyeq.tv/

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”
^{- Confucius}

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
^{- Frederick Douglass}

Posted by Mike King under Learning & Life | 3 Comments »